The term “smart metering” generally refers to the idea of equipping the customer with electronic energy consumption measuring devices to make additional functionalities available to the customer and the utility company, in addition to the simple acquisition of the amount of energy consumed by a network, for example.
This process makes it possible for a customer to obtain information about actual energy consumption in real time. The term “energy consumption” thereby means the customer's consumption relative to any type of energy that is supplied to households and companies. In addition to the types of energy consisting of electricity, water and gas, this also includes any other types of energy such as, for example, heat from a district heating network.
For capturing energy consumption, intelligent measurement systems, also called intelligent meters or “smart meters” are used by the respective consumer. Smart meters are meters measuring the energy consumed. Thereby, the consumer can be a natural or legal person that uses various measurable types of energy such as electricity, gas, water or heat. The goal of the use of smart meters is the implementation of intelligent measurement systems that would make it possible, for example, to charge variable utilization fees depending on the overall demand and network utilization. As a result, the energy supply networks could be utilized better overall.
In the following, similar elements are identified by the same reference numbers.